Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University
Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University
Appendix - Matrix - Michigan State University
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October, 1968, Olympic Games indicates vividly the<br />
degree to which the athletic revolt has intensified.<br />
Black protests against the anti-black policies of the<br />
Mormon Church have escalated and expanded to include<br />
white athletes, college coaches, and the presidents<br />
and administrations of some of America's most<br />
prestigious universities. Stanford <strong>University</strong> President<br />
Kenneth Pitzer severed all relations with Mormon<br />
controlled Brigham Young <strong>University</strong> in November of<br />
1969 after having already granted Stanford athletes a<br />
"Right of Conscience" earlier. Under this "Right of<br />
Conscience" clause no Stanford athlete would be<br />
penalized in any way for his refusal to participate in<br />
athletic contests if such an athlete sincerely felt that to<br />
participate would violate his basic moral and ethical<br />
values. On November 14, 1969, President Pitzer took<br />
a further step. In his words: "It is the policy of Stanford<br />
<strong>University</strong> not to schedule events with institutions<br />
which practice racial discrimination ... or which are<br />
affiliated with or sponsored by institutions which do<br />
so."<br />
President Pitzer's decision followed by a few months<br />
an identical decision by San Jose <strong>State</strong> College. Other<br />
schools have been under tremendous pressure from<br />
their own athletes, black and white, and from their<br />
student bodies to follow the leads of San Jose <strong>State</strong><br />
and Stanford.<br />
Also indicative of the growing animosity against<br />
the racist policies of the Mormon Church-which<br />
essentially stress the moral, intellectral, and physical<br />
inferiority of blacks-were the following events.<br />
On Saturday November 8, 1969, Coach Joe Mc<br />
Mullen and his football team from San Jose <strong>State</strong><br />
played the last football game that S.J.S. will ever play<br />
against B.YD. "... so long as Mormon policy continues<br />
to be racist in character." Coach McMullen<br />
and every member of the S.J.S. football squad, including<br />
the water boys, had voted earlier to wear black<br />
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xiv<br />
armbands during the game as a parting gesture of<br />
protest. In the words of coach McMullen, "... we are<br />
not just talking about football, or just winning or<br />
losing; we are involved in life, in basic facts of human<br />
dignity."<br />
At the <strong>University</strong> of New Mexico during the 1968<br />
69 basketball season black students marched onto the<br />
gym floor and gave the Black Dignity salute-dramatized<br />
by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the<br />
1968 Olympic Games-while the national anthem was<br />
being played just prior to the beginning of a D.N.M.<br />
B.YU. basketball contest.<br />
During the 1969-70 basketball season the B.Y.U.<br />
team has had to contend with the following gestures<br />
of disapproval with racist Mormon policies.<br />
(A) San Jose <strong>State</strong> basketball players wore black<br />
wristbands during the playing of the last S.J.S.-B.Y.U.<br />
basketball contest on the heels of an announcement<br />
by S.J.S. basketball coach Dan Glines on a Los<br />
Angeles T.V. sports program that "If I were black,<br />
I would not even entertain the thought of playing<br />
against B.Y.D."<br />
(B) B.Y.U.'s Cougarettes, the porn-porn girls and<br />
cheerleaders for the schools athletic squads, were<br />
resoundingly booed during the Quaker City basketball<br />
tournament in Philadelphia.<br />
(C) The B.Y.U. basketball team was showered<br />
with eggs during a game at Arizona <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong>.<br />
(D) And at the <strong>University</strong> of Arizona, following a<br />
strongly worded refusal on the part of the school's<br />
president to cancel a scheduled basketball game with<br />
B.Y.U. and to cut off all relations between the D. of A.<br />
and the Mormon school, the U. of A. gym floor was<br />
set afire. Despite the damage to the floor, however,<br />
the game was played, even over the protests of about<br />
200 students who attempted to ram down the gym's<br />
main entrance. All the <strong>University</strong> of Arizona players<br />
wore black wristbands. With 1 minute and 40 seconds<br />
Preface to the Paperback Edition • xv